The refinery is located on 850 acres, in 2016 had approximately 650 full-time employees, and had a crude oil capacity of 157,000 barrels per day.
A maintenance supervisor refused to shut down the unit after corroding valves failed to stop the flow of the extremely hazardous substance.
[3] In May 2002, the refinery was purchased by Tesoro Petroleum from Valero Energy, along with 70 Ultramar and Beacon gas stations in Northern California, for the total of $1.075 billion.
[4] In November 2010, the refinery had a flaring event, due to a simultaneous PG&E utility power and Foster Wheeler co-generation plant failure, that produced large quantities of thick black smoke.
A level-2 alert was issued to the community, recommending that they stay indoors due to smoke blowing offsite.
After nearly half a year, the company decided to shut down production and laid off over 720 employees with the majority of them leaving work on October 28, 2020.